F1Hub Teammate Battle Tracker: Australia

This was definitely a race where the 'number 1' drivers had the upper hand on their teammates, well apart from one...

Red Bull

Race: Vettel

Overall: Vettel 1 vs Webber 0

Vettel out-qualified his Webber at his home race, and took his Red Bull to the max clearly, but on the day at Albert Park the Lotus and Ferrari was better suited. Webber did a solid job after the start but Sebastian leads.

Ferrari

Race: Alonso

Season: Alonso 1 vs Massa 0

Fernando ran clear past Felipe last year, but this year's contest might be much, much closer. Massa out-qualified Fernando even if Alonso's DRS didn't open, and kept pace with the double world champion until the last stint of the race. A great race for Ferrari after last year's disastrous start, and lead the constructor's championship.

McLaren

Race: Button

Season: Button 1 vs Perez 0

McLaren have done what Ferrari did in 2012, and lie 2-3 seconds off the pace amazingly. Both did a good job in the race with the car they have, but Jenson edged out Perez, scoring points as a consolation. Bet they can't wait till round 5 in Spain already.

Lotus

Race: Raikkonen

Season: Raikkonen 1 vs Grosjean 0

The most obvious choice of the round, with Kimi beating Romain by 82 seconds, a whopping distance, Romain showing no pace which he matched Kimi in sometimes last year. He blamed it that Kimi had updates before he did in the weekend, but still. An impressive performance by Kimi, lets hope he can mount a title challenge to mix things up!

Mercedes

Race: Hamilton

Season: Rosberg 0 vs Hamilton 1

The most anticipated teammate lived up to expectations, with Rosberg taking the lead in practice sessions as well as in Q1 and Q2 but Lewis did brilliantly in Q3 to take 3rd with Nico in 6th. Nico dropped behind in the race, and would have finished approximately 10 seconds behind Lewis had he not had his electrical fault. Game on though!

Sauber

Race: Hulkenberg

Season: Hulkenberg 1 vs Gutierrez 0

Despite Nico's poor luck and not being able to start, he was way ahead in practice and qualifying, and I expect would have had a similar performance to that of Adrian Sutil. 

Force India

Race: Sutil

Season: di Resta 0 vs Sutil 1

A close contest, finishing in 7th and 8th a couple of seconds apart, a couple more laps and Paul would have easily taken Adrian, but the manner that Sutil handled pressure from the front runners was superb and showed no rustiness at all after a year out. 

Williams

Race: Bottas

Season: Maldonado 0 vs Bottas 1

Maldonado had a poor performance in qualifying and spun out early in the race. Bottas almost wins by default.

Toro Rosso

Race: Vergne

Season: Vergne 1 vs Ricciardo 1

Jean-Eric Vergne is carrying on where he left off at the end of last season, having one up on his previously more favoured Australian teammate. If he can reinforce his race pace consistantly, he will be favourite in the future to take Webber's seat out of the two.

Caterham

Race: Pic

Season: Pic 1 vs van der Garde 

Non-rookie Pic had a poor qualifying not qualifying in the 107% rule, but was allowed to race and his pace was far stronger than his rookie teammate.

Marussia

Race: Bianchi

Season: Bianchi 1 vs Chilton*

Both putting in solid performances, Chilton would have beat Pic if he didn't have to replace his front wing early on, but Jules Bianchi I am mighty impressed with. Marussia look good early on too.

Let us know what you think of the teammate battles!

Bring on the Malaysian Grand Prix in just a few days!

Nick, F1 Hub